Generations ago, Baltimore poet Folger McKinsey wrote “Charles Street in the Fall” about a stroll through the city. On Saturday, his descendents gathered for their 100th reunion, where they ate, played games and celebrated their heritage. “It’s neat that this will carry on,” said organizer and distant relative Glenn Opperman Sr. of New Jersey. Wearing turn-of-the-century garb to commemorate the centennial, Opperman, 60, said, “We’re all afraid to say, ‘This is it.'” On Saturday, the extended family gathered at Brandywine Springs State Park, site of the first family picnic in 1910, to continue the legacy and to remember the past

Says the poem: “Oh, to be on Charles Street, on Charles Street in the fall; To walk between the fountain and the shadow of St. Paul.”

On a picnic table were a dozen binders with old family photos and documents, as well as one of McKinsey’s books, “Songs of the Daily Life.” He also wrote the Baltimore anthem, “Baltimore Our Baltimore.”

McKinsey, who has an elementary school named after him in Anne Arundel County, was not only a poet but a columnist for The Baltimore Sun for 42 years. The Elkton native was a friend of H.L. Mencken and was part of the writer’s famed “Saturday Night Club,” which met at a Howard Street restaurant. McKinsey was also considered a protege of Walt Whitman. . . .